Visiting Capital Brewing Co.’s 1000 sq. ft lively brewery in Fyshwick, Canberra today – where bustling activity and gleaming machinery intertwine to produce of 35,000 litres of beer a week – it’s hard to imagine that not 18 months ago, the company started out by renting a brew kit in someone else’s space.

As part of our ongoing Behind The Kounta series, we spoke to Laurence Kain, co-founder of Capital Brewing Co., who sheds light on their phenomenal growth, and some of the lessons he’s learned along the way.

When you started, why did you choose to ‘gypsy brew’?

We started off gypsy brewing in someone else’s brewery in 2016 for 12 months while we were waiting for our own brewery to be completed. It’s a good way to get into the swing of things because building your own brewery definitely takes a long time, and you have costs to pay out pre-revenue and cash-flow to maintain before you get properly set up.

Rent and staff costs are big expenses and gypsy brewing means you can avoid the majority of these initial outlays and still get started on the business.

There are of course some downsides – when you’re brewing in a space and with equipment that’s not your own, there’s a slight lack of control, say in deciding what the temperature of the brew room needs to be.

It’s also necessary to learn the equipment, so we had to do that when we were gypsy brewing and then a second time when we got our own equipment as well.

There are definitely high costs involved in setting up your own brewery but I think people assume that the brew kit is the expensive part.

There’s actually a lot more to consider – the plumbing, hydraulic engineering, refrigeration and electrical works costs the most, not the brew kit.

Photo: supplied by Capital Brewing Co.

How has the shift towards more locally-sourced craft beers impacted the brewing industry?

I think the larger Australian breweries have seen the trend of craft beers taking flight in the US market and saw an opportunity to create and meet demands over here.

Craft breweries made a real dent in the sales of larger US-based breweries, and in response to that, Lion bought out James Squire and now they do One Fifty Lashes and other beers, maintaining their market share.

They have scale, a lot of resources to work with and have been very smart with their marketing. In my opinion, this has changed the craft beer landscape somewhat from what people would traditionally think of as a war between beers, to a war between marketing and sales teams.

What goes into your seasonal, limited batch beers and have you mixed any flavours that didn’t go well together?

We have our core beers which we brew all year round and our seasonal beers for Summer and Winter. Our summer ale has orange, honey and wheat with coriander seeds, and our winter stout has oatmeal and coffee in it for warmer, deeper flavours.

We also do another seasonal 3.5 per cent XPA, a passionfruit IPA and a cherry pie ale for Christmas.

Most of our volume is dedicated to our core beers. We do 5,000 litres of a seasonal beer which we sell until it runs out.

The brew team are excellent at developing recipes and understanding flavour – they also know the stages of the process very well, specifically at what stages flavours become irreversible. Also, with all our rigorous testing, we haven’t had any catastrophic failures yet! Our most recent experiment would have to be our Cherry Pie beer, which involved putting 10 large cherry pies from the local bakery into the brew. It tasted great!

Tell us about the amazing burgers served on site

Brodburger’s story is quite well known among the Canberran food lovers crowd. They were an iconic burger truck which started out at Bowen Park before getting evicted by the government. There was a line out the door seven days a week in their Kingston location after that, so we were more than happy to have them installed permanently!

Also, everyone loves a beer and a burger, so why not get the best burgers in town while visiting us?

What marketing activities have you done that have helped you grow?

We’ve been involved with many events to help boost our awareness and presence. They don’t necessarily drive much revenue, but are a great way to reach new audiences, which is good for us because we’re relatively new on the scene.

Going forwards, our overseas distributors – ones with amazing, connected networks that enjoy Aussie craft beers – are what we think will help us grow. So far, we’ve started exporting to Hong Kong, and are also looking at Singapore.

How did you achieve your version of sustainable growth?

Currently, we supply pubs and bars as well as the major buying groups and outlets across Australia. The most exciting development that’s also contributed to our growth is being really involved with the BrewSki Craft Beer and Cider Festival held at the Perisher Ski Resort. It meant a lot to us to see them really getting behind smaller craft beers, and it also really helped us get through the winter too!

Managing production is hard for a fast-growing brewery, and contrary to popular belief, the majority of our sales come from independent retailers (as opposed to the big retail groups) so it’s important to establish relationships there.

We’ve tried our best to ensure sustainable growth by catering to a broad base of customers, an approach that means we aren’t reliant on one particular group of consumers solely for our revenue.

Also, although we’ve grown quickly, we’ve taken care not to risk jeopardising the relationships we have or the quality of our product in order to do so. We’ve chosen to grow organically in a measured way at the right times, and it’s worked well for us so far.

How are you addressing your environmental impact and sustainability?

We support our local producers, and 95 per cent of our malt is grown in regional NSW. The hops are mostly from Victoria and a very small amount are from the USA.

We’ve got a very locally-focussed supply chain and this philosophy filters through to our production and waste management strategies. For example, we use tins instead of glass as this reduces packaging and freight, and we can fit 35 per cent more stock on a single pallet by doing so.

We’re proud to say that all our waste also goes to stock feed rather than to landfill.

What makes Capital Brewing Co. different, and what would you say is your biggest challenge?

Our brewing process sets us apart; we only use preservative- and additive-free ingredients.

We have our key four ingredients (water, malt, hops and yeast), and only use natural components such as orange peel and coriander seeds to flavour our beers.

In terms of challenges – firstly, making enough beer to keep up with consumer demand. Next, hiring staff.

Like any other business, we’ve had issues before finding the right people and have had to shift things around a bit to make sure we didn’t make the same mistakes again. Having said that, we have a really good crew and do a fair bit of promoting from within, we like to grow our staff internally and it’s helped that we’ve attracted some really high-quality candidates along the way.

What would you say have been your keys to success?

At the basic level, our keys to success start with the quality of our product, followed by effective branding, marketing and sales.

We’re focussed in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. We found it more challenging launching in other states because we didn’t have local following there, but our social media strategy and having people on the ground in each state has helped bridge that gap.

Hiring key people that are aligned to our brand has been a huge factor in our success – we’ve found that if we nurture the team from the ground up, the business grows organically from there.

And from a more practical perspective, we wouldn’t have been able to grow as fast as we have without the right technology in place. We have Kounta on iPads that integrate with our Tyro terminals and we’re a cashless business. This way everything is streamlined, we reduce the time we spend on administrative tasks, and we avoid all the hassle that comes with dealing with cash.

What’s in store for Capital Brewing Co. in the near future?

We are one of the larger privately-owned production breweries, probably in the top 15 per cent of small breweries in Australia and like to remain that way. We’ll keep gradually growing and adding to our tanks as volume dictates.

Hopefully this year will be as good as the last for the growth we’ve got planned!

It’s been said that hospitality is an industry that only the truly passionate thrive in. For Hobart-born mobile coffee van Que Sera Sera, that passion comes from a genuine desire to make people’s lives a little bit better, even if it’s with something as simple as a hot cup of coffee.

Sonya Lovell, co-founder of the business, shares the story of how what started out as determination to help her daughter, became a model that aims to help the less fortunate.

Image: supplied by Que Sera Sera Coffee

What will be, will be

That’s the mantra that Sonya (or Sonn as she calls herself), started living by since her daughter Bronn, born with Down Syndrome, was a baby.

Like all families coping with a disability, Sonya and Bronn both faced certain challenges as Bronn grew up. As with all parents who want the best for their children, the idea of getting into business came to Sonya as a way to a future where Bronn could have a fair go.

“It was around the time when Bronn was about to graduate high-school and head to college that we started thinking about her future. We both toyed around with the idea of starting a coffee van type business back then,” said Sonya, a trained barista.

Post college, and after completing a course in hospitality, Bronn started her foray into the industry at Willie Smith’s Apple Shed in the Huon Valley, Tasmania. It was only when Bronn started working in the ‘real world’ that other issues came into play that made the decision to start their own business much more necessary.

“Going through the Supported Wage System meant that Bronn could only receive a certain percentage of the minimum pay rate, based on her assessed work capacity,” said Sonya.

“But if we’ve got our own business, Bronn can work alongside me, be a partner, and have the chance to make as much money as she wants. Starting a mobile coffee van is as challenging as the next business, but it was a no brainer for us given that Bronn loves meeting people and learning new skills, and I love coffee and driving,” she said.

Setting the wheels in motion

The mother-daughter duo really started to make headway into their business plans when Sonya approached John, a Sydney-based custom food truck and coffee van builder who’s done bespoke vehicle fitouts for the likes of Tamar Valley Dairy, and Sydney-based Gelatony and Nonna’s Piada.

But a number of setbacks they faced while setting up the business was what spurred the bigger idea of helping others.

The original van they were going to purchase, which was equipped and ready to go, got pulled out from under them 20 hours before they were going sign the contract, leaving them without any operating premises or equipment (at which point they turned to John). And then, there was the administrative battle they faced obtaining financing to purchase a new van and getting it customised to their preferences.

Facing these challenges and more, it occurred to Sonya one night that there were probably thousands of other people like them who were in disadvantaged situations, and who just needed a break.

“I literally woke up at 3am thinking about everything we had gone through, and I thought, there must be an easier way for people in our situation to get into business. And I started thinking about what I could do to help.”

And so, the idea of ‘Pouring it Forward’ was born.

Image: supplied by Que Sera Sera Coffee

A fully mobile coffee van with a twist

Que Sera Sera Coffee is not your everyday coffee business. While Sonya and Bronn drive their van around Tasmania delivering coffee to workplaces, markets, festivals and events (pretty much wherever coffee is needed), they’re also taking orders online for virtual cups of coffee others can pay for to go towards the needy.

Here’s how it works.

Anyone can visit Que Sera Sera’s website, and purchase a virtual coffee for $4. That purchased cup of coffee is then ‘banked’ and Sonya and Bronn then deliver a real cup of coffee to nominated charity events throughout the year, including luncheons for the homeless, kids or family fun days and so on.

Every purchased cup of virtual coffee gets delivered to a person in need, and $1 from each goes into a ‘Future Entrepreneurs Fund’ Sonya is setting up to help individuals like Bronn get their shot at starting a business.

“We’re building up a Future Entrepreneurs Fund to include ‘packages’ of money (from $500 to $5000) which will go towards helping people that are younger and with a disability or are less fortunate on their pathways to fulfilling their entrepreneurial dreams,” Sonya said.

“They can put the package they receive towards a study course, or a downpayment to secure business equipment for example. Many of the vulnerable in our society – the ones who need a helping hand the most – have to work even harder than most to achieve their dreams. This is a cause that’s very close to our hearts and we’re looking forward to helping disadvantaged people get the headstart they need,” she said.

She also emphasises the importance of buying local and establishing partnerships with their immediate business community.

For example, Que Sera Sera Coffee uses milk from Udderly Tasmanian, a local dairy business that processes its dairy products minimally, resulting in mouth-wateringly delicious milk that’s sold at a reasonable price.

“It makes sense to buy locally, and advocate the produce and goods produced in and around your area. By supporting your local producers, you’re helping to reduce the carbon emissions in the supply chain (less fuel to transport products further distances and less packaging), which benefits us all.”

“Initially, Bronn and I started this business so that we can both do what we love, and it was a chance for her to make a fair amount of money and have a better life in future. But it’s just become so much bigger than that,” Sonya said.

“It’s certainly been our dream to start Que Sera Sera Coffee. And in time to come, I hope that our humble coffee van will turn into a fleet of mobile businesses that operate all around Australia, bringing comforting coffees to those who need it most and helping individuals make their dreams happen.”

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